Best Solo Queue Champs for Climbing

Players who often play with their friends or a group of people they’re familiar with may have a hard time transitioning from having a clear read of the game through active communication, to solo queue matches where interaction with the teammates is limited to pings, small talk, or at worst – trash talk. Some champions work really well when your teammates know what you want to do, but when it comes to playing by yourself you should be able to work with independent solo queue champs that will help you climb the ranks of the competitive ladder with ease.

Difference Between Solo Queue and Flex

Flex Queues are often played by individuals with 2 or more other teammates who want to play with them on Summoner’s Rift. Flex Queue games retain the competitive value present when climbing in the ranked ladder but with a more formal approach to the game because of the added emphasis on communication and teamplay. Players who spend more time here depend more on their teammates who they can rely on rather than flashy individual plays that propel them forward in the game.

Solo Queues, on the other hand, is more independent and the reliance on teammates is significantly lower. That is not to say that there is no teamplay in solo queue. This format requires the player to be able to stand alone in the game and react to their teammates based on their current state of the game. Solo queue games feature a selection of great solo queue champs that do well on their own and can snowball the game by themselves without the need to synergize with other teammate’s picks.

Best Solo Queue Champs Per Role

Depending on what role you’re playing, there’s a wide selection of solo queue champs to choose from. We’ll be giving you the most successful champs from this pool so that you can start practicing and eventually dominate the ladder. Some of these champions aren’t easily picked up by playing one or two games. As mentioned before, Solo Queue takes a higher skill level than co-op formats like Flex where you can rely on your teammates.

Top Lane

Top Lane Solo Queue champs are easy to choose from since they are usually left alone, making it easy to get solo kills and snowball from there. Once Top Lane champs start snow-balling, they can singlehandedly carry the game into their own hands and go full 1v9 in most situations.

1. Darius

Darius is the perfect lane champion because of his oppressive laning phase and incredible sustain. Once you see your opponent lock in a melee champ, Darius can easily punish enemies that try to get too close within his attack range. When Darius gets first-blood, you can assume that the game will go your way from there on because at that point your enemy laner can’t do anything against you anymore. When you get a significant lead, you can essentially fight 2 or more champions at the same time with ease.

2. Jax

Jax is an annoying champion to deal with. He is one of the few solo queue champs that can do everything at once. Jax’s strength in duels make him difficult to face but his shining moment comes when he reaches Level 6. At Level 6, Jax can start becoming a menace in lane or outside of it. Being extremely mobile, Jax can secure leads for his team by simply staying in side lanes and pushing in towers. I

3. Illaoi

Big Tentacle momma is the solo queue champ to beat all solo queue champs. Her laning phase consists of obnoxious pokes that force your opponent to try and dodge every few seconds and propelling you forward in the lane. At level 6, Illaoi becomes even more difficult to deal with capable of going 1v5 even when she’s behind. This champion is the very definition of what it means to have a lane kingdom against your opponent.

4. Quinn

We know. Ranged top lane champions are for people with no respect for the top lane. But hey, if you don’t care about those things and just want to counterpick annoying bruisers like the first three champs we mentioned, then this champ is definitely the way to go. She is easily the most annoying champion to deal with in the Top Lane and becomes a dangerous assassin once she starts flying all over the map.

Jungle

Jungle solo queue champs consist of champions that are able to hard gank allied lanes. Since you won’t be communicating much with your ally, you’ll want a jungler than can initiate a gank even without trying to plan it out with your allied laner. Once again, the snowball is the goal for these champions so that they can steamroll the competition.

1. Hecarim

Hecarim is a great champion to play in solo queue because he can quickly clear camps and swiftly gank lanes where he can find kills. To uncoordinated enemy teams, a horse running straight at you can instill fear and inspire your team to follow you into the battle. Just be sure not to run it down too hard. Hecarim can instantly go into the enemies backline and take out their most valuable members so that your team can take care of the rest.

2. Evelynn

Assassin junglers are great in solo queue because they offer great value when picking off important members who are caught out of position. Solo queue games generally have very low response rate when you single out an enemy so assassinating champions make it a breeze. Combine it with Evelynn’s invisibility and suddenly you’re roaming the map undetected doing whatever you want to do in the process.

3. Kayn

Kayn is a monster in solo queue since teams aren’t organized enough to CC lock him in place. Red Kayn in particular is strong because of his increased healing bonus on his abilities. Kayn’s ability to disorient the team and go into the backline to take care of high-priority enemies makes him really scary to face against. He’s also hard to lock down since he can just go back into the wall to run away from incoming threats from the enemy side.

Mid Lane

Mid Lane feels like solo queue no matter what format you play. If you were a flex queue mid laner, then most of your picks are already probably viable picks in solo queue. You just need to avoid combo-centric champions like Galio so that you won’t end up entering a fight your allies don’t want to commit to without your knowledge. Go for champions with great capability to simply roam around the map and kill everybody they see.

1. Zed

Zed doesn’t seem strong in this day and age but for some reason they always seem to do good in the team after getting one or more kills. While Zed himself is only useful for taking out one champion at a time by roaming around the map trying to assassinate players, uncoordinated teams tend to overchase him which is easy to deter them from getting objectives around the map.

2. Kassadin

Literally a champion that counts down to Level 16, Kassadin is a ticking time-bomb on the rift. The beauty of late game champions like these are since solo queue games last really long, Kassadin can freely farm and level-up until he becomes relevant in the game. He takes care of business when he builds his items and becomes a walking 1v5 machine that will just Rift Walk in your face to get the kill.

3. Ekko

Ekko is really technical to use but is perfect when you want to make an impact in the game without too much of the risk that comes with it. His ultimate ability allows you to dive in the face of danger and come back as if you hadn’t been in a fight in the first place. He’s destructive as an assassin, team-fighter, and even as a split-pusher if your team is in a desperate position that you want to go for an alternate win condition.

Bottom Lane

The bottom lane is probably the most difficult lane to play in solo queue since everyone wants to kill you and nobody wants to protect you except your support. Utility AD Carries or ADC’s with a lot of mobility helps you make an impact in the game while escaping the looming threat of people piling on top of you.

1. Ezreal

Ezreal is a great carry that deals a significant amount of damage in teamfights while able to maintain a safe position from getting assassinated. Even from a distance, he is able to deal damage thanks to his ultimate ability. He’s also capable of following up with his support’s aggression if they play it really aggressively in the lane. Just make sure to stick close to the terrain so that you can easily Arcane Shift to the other side of the wall.

2. Jhin

Jhin is also a great ADC that is able to play from a safe distance. His ultimate ability allows him to contribute to the fight even if he’s far away. The champion’s other abilities work well too even if he’s not in the fight himself. That doesn’t mean that Jhin doesn’t want to be in the fight when it happens. His passive allows him to deal a lot of damage on the 4th shot which is really important if you want to dish a lot of damage to the enemy team.

3. Kog’Maw

Another safe-distance champion? You got that right! We’re not promoting that you need to fight from a hundred miles away but these champions are great from those transitioning from Flex to Solo queue. Kog’Maw can throw out a ton of damage from a safe distance and can even fight face-to-face if he wants to. The advantage of being a Kog’Maw is that even if you die in a teamfight immediately, you can still contribute some damage with your passive.

Support

Support solo queue champs tend to lean on the Enchanter side because of their ability to poke significant damage in lane and keep their carries safe thanks to their abilities. Of course, you’d want to play Enchanters when your team already has a tank but if you do plan to play tanks then there’s a different list for that as well.

Enchanters:

1. Soraka

Soraka is just simply a pain to deal with in any situation. Being able to heal your allies that are trying to carry the game is really important to the success of team fights. Having a global heal also influences teammates that are trying to win battles in other parts of the lane. Just make sure to heal the right targets and not just randomly throw it out without thinking how it will come to bite you back in the long run.

2. Yuumi

Playing League of Legends while finishing up a series on Netflix on the other monitor? Play Yuumi and randomly press skills to make your ally think you’re still in the game! Kidding aside, Yuumi works great because the only thing you have to worry about is landing your skills in the right direction. Of course, you’ll need to know how to jump from one play to the other too.

Tanks:

1. Nautilus

Nautilus is a pretty good tank champion and has an extremely threatening engage potential. All you need to do is hook someone, shield, press R, and wait for you team to finish up. No one will every blame you for dying so many times as long as you do it properly.

2. Blitzcrank

Blitzcrank is a hook champion that is really annoying to deal with. Catching out the right enemy often wins you the game. Once you catch an important person, you’ll expect the enemy team to respond by counter-engaging. Once they’re near enough, press R and see the massacre happen right before your eyes.